[Ansteorra-archery] the future??

[Eadric Anstapa]

When to go to an event and compete in an archery tournament you always 
do your and and shoot your best.   However, I think that sometimes doing 
your best can mean deciding not to shoot anymore and stepping aside so 
that an archer who can better serve as champion will be proclaimed champion.

It does a noble no good to have the best archer in the world as his 
champion if that champion can not or will not fullfil the duties of the 
office.  When a person shoots and wins a championship tournament and is 
never seen again, or poorly fullfills the duties of the office it hurts 
us all.

When you travel to a championship tournament you should expect that if 
you win there will be certain obligations that you will be honor bound 
to fulfill.  Those obligations vary from one group to another.  If the 
demands that will be placed on the champion have not been spelled out in 
advance and you think that there is a chance that you will not be able 
to meet those demands then call or email someone and ask.  Every Kingdom 
Calendar event must have an event announcement and that event 
announcement must have contact information provided.  Before you leave 
home you have the opportunity to contact the event sponsors and ask what 
demands they place on their champions. 

Lord Alden mentioned earlier that while he currently holds a a title 
from the Loch he would in December like to seek a similar title from 
Stargate and that he intends to in advance consult with the nobles from 
each group to make sure that is acceptable to them.  I applaud Alden for 
his approach and foresight.

I think the Carolingian approach of requiring that the champion be a 
Carolingian to be a bit odd.  However it is their tournament and they 
have made these requirements so well and widely known that we are even 
talking about it here in Ansteorra so I dont see big a problem.  Arthur, 
dont waste your gas money and time driving to Carolingia cause they wont 
allow you to be champion.

The barons request that that his champion not have divided loyalties, 
that they try their best to attend the Carolingian events, and all the 
rest are I think perfectly acceptable requirements and a perfectly 
acceptable set of duties for a Baronial Champion with one exception.  
Moreover I think they should be a pretty NORMAL set of expected duties 
for a champion and exactly what I expect with the one exception.

A few weeks ago Fergus d'Onray and I were discussing what Gate's Edge 
required of our Champions and I basically said,  attend our events if 
you can, represent Gates Edge well and make sure that you bring us no 
dishonor, display our banner with pride wherever you go, when Gates Edge 
needs a champion to shoot for us in other competitions stand ready to do 
so, shoot or fight with our shire and not against us, come back next 
year and help to test the people seeking to replace you and defend the 
title as best you can.    Is any of that abnormal?

We dont ask that our champions organize, run, and provide for our 
tournament for the next year because we think that is wrong.  The 
champion may not have archery range equipment, may not be a marshal, and 
shouldn't be asked to cough up prizes out of his own pocket for next 
years tournament.  We sorta feel that if as a branch we can not 
internally support and host a good championship tournament then we have 
no business holding one in the first place.

I think archers and archery will get more respect if the community takes 
these things more seriously.  Look how seriously the Rapier Community 
takes their responsibility to the Queen and Princess.  To have the Queen 
at an event without her Champion nearby or a Don standing in in nearly 
unthinkable.  I assure you that there a plenty of rapier fighters who 
have not won queens champion or other championship tournaments, not 
because they could not have won on that day, but simply because they did 
not think they could serve as needed.  

To have a our Princess at an event without a Cadet there to serve her is 
becoming equally unthinkable.  These cadets serving the princess have 
not won any tournament that obligated them to such service, they simply 
but on a red scarf and with that action obligated themselves to doing 
what is necessary to make the rapier community stronger.

Look how seriously the typical rapier fighter takes his/her 
responsibility as a champion and how seriously the leaders in the rapier 
community take their service to noble ladies of this kingdom.  Please 
consider that is a large reason why the Queen and Noble ladies of this 
Kingdom pay such attention to those people and why that community gets 
the respect that it does.

I think we can all help the archery community of we make sure that when 
we hold Baronial Championships we make sure that the Nobles know that 
they can count on their champions.  Moreover I think the champions need 
to be there helping even if unbidden.

We can have lots of tournaments that are not championship tournaments.  
These can be held before or after the champion tournaments at events, at 
events where champion tournaments are not being held, at local fighter 
practices, etc.  Just get out and do it.

Yes nobles and branches may need to pay more attention to their archery 
championships.  But if their archery champions aren't going to be 
meaningful for them then why should they?  WE can make the office of 
archery champion meaningful by our exemplary actions as champions.

Some branches do a good job with their champions.  The nobles spend time 
at the archery range, they make sure that at ANY event the B&B attend 
that their champions have their hospitality, shade, water, and lunch.  
The make sure that the champion has nice regalia and good keeper prizes 
as payment for their service as champion.  They make sure that they keep 
published their lists of champions and that they send them a 
complementary subscription to the branch newsletter and they waive site 
or feast fees for their champions at local events when possible.  None 
of these are unheard of or even uncommon in some areas of the kingdom.  
Encourage your branch to do as much  of same as makes sense locally.

In short I think that having a strong set of of requirements and 
responsibilities for a Champion is a good thing because it shows that 
the group takes pride in those positions and pays attention to them.


Always in Service,

-- 
HL Eadric Anstapa
DSEM CA
/eadric at scabrewer.com/ <mailto:eadric at scabrewer.com>

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